multiple partitions for dedicated audio harddrive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter gnatbert
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gnatbert

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I'm ready to add a 2nd 30GB 7200rpm harddrive to put my Digital Orchestrator Pro audio files on.

I'm new to this, and haven't found much to go on regarding whether or not to create more than one partition for this 2nd hd in my Google search.

From what I gather, the main reason to have more than one partition is for defragmenting ease.

I'm using D.O.Pro as a workstation to write the songs more than I am interested in finished product-- that is, I'm more interested in using it to make my choices in song structure, harmonies, bass lines, etc. and have the music to write lyrics over, than I am in a polished track. That said, I will likely have numerous songs loaded and being worked on at once as ideas come to me, and depending on where my interest is at the time. This is a hobby.

I've thought perhaps 3 partitions. Say 15GB for actively worked on tracks. 10 GB for finished or mostly finished tracks. 5 GB for non-audio backed up files, etc. I'm just speculating and have little to go on in coming up with the 3 partition idea.

What do you guys suggest?

System info:

Dell Dimension 4100 PIII 733Mhz
320SDRAM 133Mhz
Intel D815EEA motherboard modified for Dell,
with built in ATA-66 controller
Intel 815 chip (no E printed after 815)
PCI 33mhz bus
Promise Ultra ATA-100 card TX2
Soundblaster Live Value
32MB TNT2 M64 AGP Graphics card
45GB IBM Deskstar 7200rpm Ultra ATA 100 HD
- master solo on primary Promise IDE
30GB Western Digital 7200rpm Ultra ATA 100 TX2
-master solo on secondary Promise IDE
Lite-On LTN483S 48x CD-rom
-master solo on secondary motherboard IDE
12x Teac 512EB CD-RW
-master solo on primary motherboard IDE
 
gnatbert said:
From what I gather, the main reason to have more than one partition is for defragmenting ease.
Click to expand...

I'm personally not so sure about that.

Of course, it will speed up the process but, do you need to defrag that often? And when you do, don't you just let your drive run by itself, say, during the night? You didn't say which OS you use, but if I remember correctly, Win 2000 will even defrag at any given time whenever your processor is not working for something else.

I believe having partitions on your hard drive will mainly be helpful for re-installing your OS or other applications more easily from time to time. Or even let you run another OS (like Linux).

I haven't done it myself yet so, again, I'm not 100% sure about this. A recent thread has been discussing the issue without going into much details though. Anyone else has more info on this?
 
Partition if you like, but it is not necessary. I prefer to organize data on the audio drive in Folders.

As far as defraging, why bother? Time consuming and I can't say as it's ever helped me performance wise. Just get real good at formating and reinstalling OS's. Faster than a defrag anyday.

----

When you format the drive, use the /z:64 switch.

format x: /z:64

Bigger clusters, better for transfer of large audio files.

---

The only partitioning I do is on my C drive. I triple boot 98, 98 lite and Windows 2000. The data drives are in removable brackets, all single partitions. Consider getting a removable bracket, their a blast. Run out of space but too lazy to back up all your data to CD-R? (which you should do anyway), buy a new drive, throw it in a bracket... plug and play.

Do backup your data though..

Hard drives can fail, anytime.....
 
Emeric wrote: "Partition if you like, but it is not necessary. I prefer to organize data on the audio drive in Folders. "

Using folders has no affect on the way data is written to the drives. The purpose of my conjectured partitioning was to place data on the partitions according to how often it would likely need to be defragemented. Files being changed most often being put on on partition. Files being changed less often being put on another. It has nothing to due with the desire for some visual organization in my Windows Explorer.
Thanks
 
I don't know that it has hurt my recording performance, but I use Nortons for scan disk and defrag. I remove and transfer a lot of material and at the risk of sounding like a bumpkin, you can almost compare drive fragmentation to air in brake lines (damn I wish I hadn't said that!) and defragging is essentialy the equivalent of bleeding the lines. Necessary for seek times and Nortons does my 60gig in about a minute.

Also, for what it's worth.....Best Buys is running WD 60gb ATA100's for $199 and issues a $75 certificate.
 
Thanks for the response. Yes, I understand what the defragmenting does, but have never recorded on pc extensively yet, so I am fishing for feedback from other musicians on this issue. I've yet to get anything bearing any resemblance to a consensus. I'm still up in the air about what I'll do, but have other problems holding up my 2nd harddrive install right now, so I have time to ponder.

One other factor besides defragmenting I'm considering is the possibility of setting up a partitioned drive for use in installing an OS in a second location on my system, should I have problems with my current installation, need to upgrade, etc. Seems this might make a transition easier regarding backing up info. I don't know. Just something I heard mentioned.
 
I would go with the smallest number of partitions you can. Having a seperate partition for Windows and/or other operating systems is very handy, but defragging isn't an issue often enough to worry about partitioning to accomodate it. You'll probably just end up unexpectedly filling a partition and then getting annoyed with the inflexable sizes of the partitions.
 
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